The Universality of Oneness

Written by Rev. Dennis Shipman (c) 2010
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"There is nothing I can teach you that you don’t already know. I can only help you remember the vision you have forgotten. The vision of who you are. The vision that won’t go away. The vision that calls your name."

In April 1969, I became a recipient of a sudden, spontaneous, profound enlightenment known as Oneness. This event happened quietly, blissfully, at work, and it changed my life forever.

Oneness is an incredible joyous awakening experience to one’s innermost being. It is the most profound event in a person’s life. In my experience of Oneness, my whole being was flooded with incredible exquisite transcendent inner light and limitless unconditional love. Within the experience, I realized my oneness or union with a Higher Power or universal consciousness. This event happened “within,” within my consciousness, within my being. I discovered it is the macro-cosmic design within the microcosm, and it is the source of opulent supply, peace, prosperity, majestic wonder, and guidance. As Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21).

The experience of Oneness is a merging or union of one’s human consciousness with a limitless universal consciousness that exists within one’s own consciousness. In the light of this experience, one does not feel inferior or subservient to this limitless, unconditional loving consciousness, but rather a partner or equal. Moreover, in the light of this discovery, one realizes there is no difference between one’s real essence or identity and the essence of this universal consciousness.

The experience takes one behind the scenes of life, so to speak, and shows the recipient the changeless truths that life is based upon. This experience cannot be understood intellectually, yet can be known only by experiencing it.

The experience of Oneness radically transformed my understanding about our relationship to God, Jesus, sin, salvation, eternal hell, the devil, and our purpose on Earth. As you shall read in this book, the astonishing revelations of Oneness that were downloaded into my consciousness do not conform to current philosophical-cultural dogmas or beliefs of our modern world.

Oneness is Found in All Walks of Life!

The universality of the experience of Oneness is found in all religions and mystic traditions of the East and West. Every major religion in the world was formed around an enlightened leader who experienced a profound enlightenment. Saints, sages, and mystics in all periods of history praise the wonders and advantages of Oneness. They say everybody can know this sublime relationship because our origin is Divine.

An experience of Oneness is the same as what the Christian mystics call ''union with God'' or mystical union. Other religions have different names for it. Hinduism calls it samadhi. Buddhism calls it nirvana. It refers to the same experience: a transcendent state of bliss, happiness, joy, harmony, blessedness. It verifies the fact to the individual that a Higher Power exists, and that there is only one transcendent power. All those who experience Oneness, regardless of their religious preference or culture, agree unanimously on this most fundamental fact.

A long tradition exists among scholars and religious persons to reconcile the underlying unity of all religions in the East and West, and between science and mysticism. The experience of Oneness unifies all religions and science. The inner light of Oneness illumines the mind and heart and reveals the mystery of life in the individual. What was once unknown prior to awakening now stands irrevocably open to one's vision, and the knowledge imparted through direct perception in the mind's eye becomes fused into the mind and heart. The inner perception becomes the new concrete knowledge of existence upon which the individual builds his or her life.

Saints, sages and mystics in both the East and West have discovered the existence of the inner light of Oneness within themselves, and have pointed out how we can find the reality of this Unity. Their devotion, aspiration, and high moral character clearly demonstrate the alluring virtues that attract the Divine Response. An analysis of their writings or teachings indicate that the energy of Oneness exists as one indivisible substance. The nature of this substance seems to be the focal point of considerable debate, but not within the ranks of the illumined.

Dr. Richard Maurice Bucke, M.D

In his magnum opus book, ''Cosmic Consciousness,'' Canadian doctor Richard Maurice Bucke, M.D., published in 1901 a study he conducted into the spiritual illumination of 49 individuals in history who exhibited what he calls the Cosmic Sense or Cosmic Consciousness. These are synonymous terms for Oneness used in this book. Dr. Bucke was himself a recipient of this trans-human state of consciousness.

The subjects in his study came from all walks of life: religious leaders, writers, poets, philosophers, mystics, a Catholic priest, a businessman. According to Bucke, many of them were major historical figures, such as: Gautama the Buddha (Buddhism), Jesus the Christ (Christianity), St. Paul of Tarsus (considered the greatest apostle of Christianity), Plotinus (ancient Egyptian philosopher, founder of Neoplatonism), Dante (Italian poet), John Yepes (St. John of the Cross), Francis Bacon (considered the writer of the Shakespeare plays and poems), Walt Whitman (American poet).

Dr. Bucke discovered 13 shared characteristics among those who exhibited signs of Oneness or Cosmic Consciousness. Here are two examples:

The Sudden, Instantaneous of the Awakening

This is one of its most striking features. Those who experience illumination experience something that’s nearly impossible to describe. Suddenly, without warning, the person becomes aware of an unmistakable Presence or Higher Power that is accompanied by a dazzling flash of light. As Bucke describes it, the light could take several forms, including but not limited to, a flame, rose-colored cloud, or a blazing inner light. During the light show, the person is bathed in an emotion of joy, bliss, assurance, peace, triumph, liberation, intense thankfulness – a sacred ecstasy which poets have written about throughout history.

Within the light show and intense emotion, information is conveyed to one’s consciousness as to the meaning and drift of life. It is not a belief; it is a knowing – a knowledge of the inner workings of life. Whereas the person may have once viewed creation to be composed of dead matter, one’s consciousness is now transformed and wakes up to the truth that a living, super-intelligent, sacred presence exists within all creation. A more powerful and direct connection is now established between the individual and cosmic consciousness.

The Fear of Death Simply Vanishes

The person experiences life as it is – eternal, an infinite ocean of supremely intelligent energy. The experiencer sees that his or her life within the body is eternal; that the Soul of man is as immortal as cosmic consciousness itself; that the purpose of creation is built for all things to work together for the good of each person and the benefit of all; that the foundation principle upon which life exists is what we call love, and that the happiness of every individual is in the long run absolutely certain.

The enlightenment of Oneness opens the gates to the origin of existence, and brings an immense knowledge of the totality of life that eclipses all human conception, imagination, and speculation. Old methods and theories of explaining the universe become petty and ridiculous to the awakened soul. The person will learn in a few seconds (or however long the awakening lasts) far more than what months or years of study can teach, and will learn much that no study can ever teach.

Gopi Krishna (1903-1984)

One of the best contemporary descriptions we have on the universality of Oneness is from the autobiographical writings of Gopi Krishna. At the time of his great awakening in 1937, he was thirty-four years of age and employed as a civil servant in India. He was married and devoted himself to a discipline of yoga and meditation for three hours a day for seventeen years. Gopi Krishna was not the first person to experience this great awakening of illumination and divine energy within the human body, but he was the first in modern times to write a detailed account of his transformation of consciousness.

This transformation lasted for the next fifty years, until his death at the age of eighty-four. His autobiography ''Kundalini: The Evolutionary Energy in Man,'' was published in 1970, and his second book, ''The Secret of Yoga,'' in 1972.

Kundalini is the evolutionary, primordial energy of creation that awakens the individual to an exquisite Paradise within. It's a Sanskrit word which means literally ''she who is coiled.'' According to Gopi Krishna, kundalini is housed in the human body at the base of the spinal cord. It is the psycho-spiritual energy of consciousness that rises up the spinal cord to the brain to cause enlightenment. The super-intelligent Kundalini energy forms an integral part of the universal Lifeforce Energy System which interpenetrates each human being. In this energy system, we will find Oneness, the Heaven within us, and prove the existence of the kingdom of Spirit.

In his book, Gopi Krishna describes his extraordinary awakening in 1937. His description shares many of the characteristics described in Dr. Bucke book “Cosmic Consciousness:” . . . suddenly, a brilliant light flooding into his brain . . . growing brighter and brighter . . . becoming entirely immersed in a sea of light . . . his entire being expanding into infinity . . . losing track of sensory input . . . bathed in a state of exaltation and happiness beyond description.

Dr. Lee Sannella, M.D.

In answer to Gopi Krishna's insistent request for Western science to launch a serious investigation into this important phenomenon within the human body, a psychiatrist and ophthalmologist, Dr. Lee Sannella, M.D., responded to the challenge.

His book, ''The Kundalini Experience,'' first published in 1976, is considered a classic in pioneering the psychiatric understanding of the universal kundalini experience. His book examined two viewpoints: First, the awakening to Kundalini ''is a process of psycho-physiological transmutation'' which is a reality. Second, ''this process is part of an evolutionary mechanism and must not be viewed as a pathological development.'' He proposes that "kundalini process is an aspect of human psycho-spiritual unfolding that is intrinsically desirable.'' Dr. Sannella was the founder of the first kundalini clinic in San Francisco, California.

Awakening to Kundalini is synonymous with the terms mystical union, oneness, samadhi, and nirvana. Jesus spoke about the transformative energy of Kundalini when he said, ''The light of the body is the eye. If thy eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light'' (Matt.6:22). The light that Jesus speaks about is the inner light of Oneness. When Kundalini awakens in the body, as in my case, a person experiences inner light in a vision within the mind's eye in the forehead. This demonstrates the universal potential that lies dormant within the central nervous system in every human being. It is the super-intelligent energy inherent in consciousness and human evolution. In Oneness is where science, religion, and mysticism meet without any conflict.

This writing is the result of over 40 years of living the knowledge of Oneness. My hope is that after reading this, you will be inspired to prove to yourself that the experience of Oneness is real. I offer my insights as a testimony that we do not have to live in ignorance of our real identity, and of the power of Oneness. The “conscious awareness” of Oneness is our birthright and available to all.

We are more than we have been taught. There exists within each of us a state of being that is fearless, changeless, eternal, immortal, holy, unconditionally loving, and sinless. It is not dogma or a belief, and not a new religion, yet it exists and can be known by anyone. It has always been with us, all through our human experience, ever since the dawning of humanity on earth, though we might not recognize its Presence. It’s with us now, and will never leave us.

About the Author:

Rev. Dennis Shipman grew up in the Roman Catholic religion. He attended Catholic elementary and college-prep schools for 11 years, and volunteered as an altar boy for seven years. His search for God began in the fourth grade in an environment of devotion and prayer. By the time he graduated high school, he had developed a powerful quest for proof of God’s existence. Five years later, as a non-practicing Catholic, he experienced Oneness.